Learn one Chinese Character a day – 好

It has been learnt in our last lesson that "女" means Lady, Woman or Unmarried Young Girl. And it has been learnt as well that "子" means Child, or sometimes Son specifically.

What is then the meaning of this character "好", which consists of "女" and "子"?
Before giving explanation, let us examine its evolution history first: (image get from: http://www.vividict.com )

Learn one Chinese Character a day – 好

 Oracle was created to mean a holds her . Below drawing is a vivid view of this character-

好

What would be the meaning of that our Chinese ancestors wanted to express here with such a scene? Maybe I should ask what kind of feeling you would have when you see such a view instead?

That must be a good, beautiful and touching moment! 

Yes, "好" (with Pronunciation hǎo ) has the meaning of Good, Beautiful, Perfect or Fine. 

"好" was then extended to mean Friendly, or Satisfactory, Completed, Easy. It can also mean Very as adv.

While "好" (with Pronunciation hào )  can mean Like, Love as verb or Hobbies, Interests or Favourites as noun.  

As you can see "好" conveys many positive and good meanings. Somebody is curious why Chinese ancestor chose the combination of "女子" to mean Good instead of "母子" (母 means mother) ?  That is hard to answer. But it might be the will of God? Using "女子" to mean Good is coincident with the Bible story that Saint Maria gave birth to Jesus Christ as a virgin. And Christmas is coming, "好" is probably the best Chinese character we can learn for this merry season.

To end our lesson today, let us enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with "好" inside:

敏而好学，不耻下问

Learn one Chinese Character a day – 女

From current writing of "女", it would be very hard to guess its meaning. Looking at its Oracle Scripts and the evolution history could help a lot. Below screen shot is taken from http://chinese-linguipedia.org :

Learn one Chinese Character a day – 女

Oracle Scriptis a lady sitting on her feet with arms crossing. Below is a drawing showing how it should looks like. Japanese and Korean are still following such tradition in their daily lives: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seiza

女

Bronze Script is the lady  wearing a hairpin. A typical hairpin with its usage is shown below. It can be a proof that living standard during Bronze Script period had been improved a lot from Oracle Script period.

Hairpin

Clerical Script was very likely a continuation of from Warring State Era. It was then further transformed to our current way of writing - "女".

So "女" means a lady. 

"女" also means woman.

"女" can also be used to mean unmarried young girl. 

After "女" was created, it was used as a commonly used radical to help to create many more Chinese characters. We will see one in our next lesson.

Now it is time to enjoy a Chinese calligraphy as usual:

关关雎鸠，在河之洲。 窈窕淑女，君子好逑。

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 南

We have learnt "东" "西", "北" and "中", there is one last left - South - "南", from its Oracle Script and Bronze Script, it was created from an ancient musical instrument - Bianzhong or Chinese Bronze Chime Bells ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bianzhong ). That is surprising, how can a musical instrument was used to mean south?

Chinese Bronze Chime Bell

Before explanation, let us examine its evolution history first: ( image got from http://vividict.com )

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 南

Oracle Script was the drawing of a hanging bell, while its Bronze Script added (Wooden Hammer) to bell partto mean "use a hammer to knock the bell", which emphasising the moment of playing musics. Then it evolved to Seal Script , then Clerical Script and eventually what we use now - "南"

Below is a typical scene of playing musics with Bianzhong or Chinese Bronze Chime Bells.

That is clear that Original meaning of "南" is the musical instrument, but why it was then used to mean south? 

Bianzhong or Chinese Bronze Chime Bells were dedicated for nobles' usage in ancient China, it was a symbol of social status and power. And Chinese Bronze Chime Bells were normally used only in an important ceremonies with nobles sitting in the north part of the hall (back to north while facing south， please recall how "北" is created), and the musical instruments placed in the south part. "南" was then used to mean South.

And in some ancient documents, we can see the original meaning of "南" used, which is a musical instrument.

That is it! It is time to enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with "南" inside:

红豆生南国，春来发几枝。 愿君多采撷，此物最相思。

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 栖

Looking at this character 栖, it consists of left part - 木 and right part - 西. It has been known that 木 means tree or wood, while 西 has its original meaning of bird nest. Since 西 has been borrowed to mean West or Occident, Chinese ancestors then added 木 to 西 to create a new character 栖 to mean bird nest in a tree.

when 栖 is used as a verb, it can be used to mean (bird) alight or rest one something. 
栖 is also extended to mean dwell (in certain place).

For now there is no evolution history found for 栖, It is possible that it was created to be separated from 西 in Han Dynasty ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_dynasty ) during a great effort to save ancient Chinese books.

After Qin Shihuang united China, he felt it hard to rule such a great country with different intellectual discourse. His chief chancellor Li Si suggested to unify thought and political opinion by forbidding people to have their own books. Qin Shihuang collected all the books from all over his empire and reserved one copy of each in his Epang Palace ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epang_Palace ), then burned the extra copies. Details can be found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_of_books_and_burying_of_scholars titled "Burning of books and burying of scholars".

At the end of Qin Dynasty, General Xiang Yu, the leader of rebellion forces, defeated Qin and burned Epang Palace, which burning lasted for 3 months. Because of that all the collected books by Qin Shihuang were destroyed as well.

After Han Dynasty was established, Emperors of Han ordered the officials to try their best to recover ancient writings. They did find many elders and scholars, talked with them to record what they memorised. Thanks to Han Dynasty majority of the Chinese culture and knowledge were saved and continued till current day.

Anyway let us enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with 栖 inside:

栖云卧月

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 西

English word Occident denotes west with following way of creation: O (the sun) + ccid ( descend ) + ent ( place ), which is the place where the sun descends.

How does Chinese ancestors create a word to denotes the same meaning? In our last lesson of "东 | 東", we knew Chinese has a fairy tale that Sun rises from the "扶桑" tree, led by an immortal crow. 

汤谷上有扶木，一日方至，一日方出，皆载于乌

When Sun sets, the immortal crow would get back to its nest to rest for the night. Chinese ancestors then utilised the nest of the immortal crow to mean the place where sun descends to - west.

Below is the evolution history of Chinese character "西", which means West: (Screenshot taken from http://chinese-linguipedia.org )

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 西

Oracle Script, Bronze Script and the Scripts used during Warring States Era (first three columns in above table) were Pictograph character, which were different drawings of bird nest. During Seal Script period, one variationexplicitly added the bird  which rest on its nest .

It is possible that from Warring States Era was mainly used in State of Qin. After Qin united China, when Emperor Qin Shihuang wanted to unify the writings, his first choice would be , which was then simplified to Clerical Script . Its shape is thereafter kept the same for hundreds of years including now - "西"

"西" means West. or Occident to be precise.

Let us enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with "西" inside to end our lesson today:

劝君更尽一杯酒，西出阳关无故人。

If were you who would create a Chinese character to mean South, what could be your possible choices?

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 东 | 東

From the Simplified Chinese character - 东, there will be no clue at all about what it means. Luckily we still have the Traditional Chinese character - 東 (日 in the midst of a 木).

Before the answer is revealed, a story need to be told first.

When Chinese ancestors observed the sunspot on the surface of sun, they thought that was an immortal crow, who drove for the sun in the sky. While in the midst of far east China Sea, there was a huge tree called "扶桑" growing upon the sea. Each day the immortal crow would wake up from the "扶桑" tree to lead the sun to shine upon the earth.

扶桑

東 was created referring to above story. the 木 in the Chinese character 東 is not a normal tree, but the greatest tree named 扶桑 standing in the east. So 東 means "the place the sun rising from", which is East.

English word Orient was created in a similar way - O (the sun) + ri (rise) + ent (place). Only difference is that Chinese ancestors utilized a fairy story to display the same idea.

Once you know this story, you would not be surprised to see Chinese character for West is related to a bird and its nest, which was referring to the immortal crow actually.

Before ending our lesson today, it is still a good habit to see 东 | 東 evolution history first:
(image got from http://www.vividict.com )

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 东 | 東

And finally time to enjoy a Chinese Calligraphy with 东 | 東 inside

东市买骏马

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 木

We have pretty much learnt all Chinese numbers together with some related Chinese characters during past a few lessons. Now it is time to move to some other groups like directions. Before that we need to prepare ourselves with one new Chinese character "木". What is the meaning of "木" then?

Let us examine its evolution history first and you can give it a guess. ( image get from http://www.vividict.com )

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 木

If you still have not a clear idea yet, let us see something more obvious below:

木

As you can see from Oracle Script of "木", it is a drawing of "a tree" with as its trunk and branches and as its roots. "木" is later extended to mean "Wood" as well.

Bronze Script , Seal Script continues its Oracle Script, while Clerical Script faded away the branches with a "一" to get what are using today: "木".

There are many interesting characters created with "木", like "本"， “末”， “林”， “森”， “休”. I will leave them for you to guess their meaning before we get back to them in the future.

Now it is time to enjoy a Chinese Calligraphy with "木" inside.

木秀于林, 风必摧之

In our next lesson, we will learn "东" in Simplified Chinese or "東" Traditional Chinese. Its Oracle Script is . What will be its meaning while talking about directions?

Along the way you are learning Chinese characters with us, you would probably join me to dislike Simplified Chinese characters as they have lost the essence of our Chinese characters.